Seat belts are designed to handle a sudden jolt of 1,000 lbs of force.

An adult seat belt fits correctly when: The shoulder belt lies across the middle of the chest and shoulder, not the neck or throat. The lap belt is low and snug across the upper thighs, not the belly.

The mesh-like design of seat belts means that they stretch to accommodate your forward force if you’re in a crash. It’s for this reason that seat belts need to be replaced after a collision: once they’ve stretched, they don’t snap back to their original form or function.

Seat belts, both the lap belt and shoulder harness, must be in good working order. You may not operate your vehicle unless you and all your passengers 16 years of age or over, or who weigh 60 lbs. or more, are wearing seat belts. If seat belts are not worn, you may be given a traffic ticket.

While lap belts are fine for car seats where the child is secured by the car seat’s 5 point harness, lap belts are NOT ok for booster seats as boosters need shoulder belts. Unfortunately, you can not have a shoulder belt added to a center seat that has just a lap belt.

Currently, damages may be reduced for the non-use of a seat belt in 16 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida (See F.S.A. 316.614(10)), Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The law applies to all who drive or are motor vehicle passengers in California. What type of seat belt must be used? – The lower portion, the lap area, must cross the hips or upper thighs of the wearer. The upper portion, the shoulder area, must cross the front chest of the wearer.

California – California takes their seat belt laws seriously. “The Golden State” cites extensive evidence that seat belts save lives for their strong seat belt laws. Every adult over the age of 16 years must wear an approved seat belt.

Inertia is the reason that people in cars need to wear seat belts. A moving car has inertia, and so do the riders inside it. If the driver is wearing a seat belt, the seat belt rather than the windshield applies the unbalanced force that stops the driver’s forward motion.

Studies have shown that wearing a seat belt is the most effective method to reduce injury or prevent death during an accident. In fact, not wearing a seat belt is the single contributing factor that causes more deaths in motor vehicle crashes.

When we are in a moving car, we have inertia of motion. If, due to some reason, the car comes to a sudden stop, we would be thrown forward due to inertia of motion and hurt ourselves. To prevent these accidents, we should wear seatbelts which keep us bound to the seat and prevent any injury.

Being buckled up during a crash helps keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle; being completely ejected from a vehicle is almost always deadly. If you don’t wear your seat belt, you could be thrown into a rapidly opening frontal air bag. Such force could injure or even kill you.

Seat belt syndrome is a collective term that includes all injury profiles associated with the use of seat belts. It is defined classically as a seat belt sign (seat belt marks on the body) plus an intra-abdominal organ injury (e.g. bowel perforations) and/or thoraco-lumbar vertebral fractures.